Search Results
Journal Article
The short-run dynamics of long-run inflation policy
An examination of the short- and long-term implications of an inflation policy on real output, using a method that allows structural interpretation of a simple VAR applied to a macroeconomic system that includes real output and inflation.
Journal Article
A regional perspective on the credit view
An explanation of how regional credit-market performance can affect local economic activity, showing how imbalances in financial capacity across regions cause capital-poor regions to be underfunded. This reduced financial capacity is related to economic activity in states that are experiencing low growth.
Working Paper
Portfolio risks and bank asset choice
An investigation of the effects of credit risk and interest-rate risk on bank portfolio choices, showing how bank capital inadequacy may prevent a bank from investing in the optimal portfolio and how the efficiency of the bank's intermediation technology affects its choice of second-best portfolio.
Conference Paper
Payday lending: do the costs justify the price?
Report
Piggy banks: financial intermediaries as a commitment to save
Savers with uncertain life spans cannot stick to long-term investment plans when they invest directly in liquid assets. Before horizons are known, all savers will plan to roll over their short-term assets if returns turn out high. Ex post, the short-term investors will consume their liquid assets rather than reinvest them. Delegating investment decisions to an intermediary reduces the commitment problem, and leads to more efficient portfolios. The higher return to savings should also increase savings rates.
Journal Article
In search of the elusive credit view: testing for a credit channel in modern Great Britain
An examination of the credit performance of the financial sector in the modern British economy, showing that problems in credit markets associated with debt and default/liquidation can disrupt the production of real financial services necessary to channel funds to efficient investment opportunities.
Journal Article
U.S. banking sector trends: assessing disparities in industry performance
An investigation of the extent to which variations in banking conditions over the past decade were associated with differences in bank size and holding company relationships, finding that very large banks had more problems with loan quality and poor profitability than did smaller banks, and that smaller banks benefited by affiliating with holding companies.
Journal Article
Examining the microfoundations of market incentives for asset-backed lending
A review of four papers that model market-based (as opposed to regulatory-based) forces driving the asset-backed lending market, revealing that under certain conditions, the information costs that make financial markets important as conduits of credit can also create nonregulatory incentives for asset-backed lending as an efficient funding mode.
Discussion Paper
Piggy Banks
What do banks do? Ask an economist and you’ll get a variety of answers. Banks play a vital role in allocating capital by linking savers and borrowers; they produce information by screening and monitoring borrowers; they create liquidity; they share and distribute risk; they engage in maturity transformation by borrowing short and lending long. What you won’t usually hear is that banks may help people stick to an optimal savings plan that they might not be able to stick to if they invested their money themselves. In other words, banks may serve as piggy banks by preventing people from ...
Working Paper
Bank performance and regional economic growth: evidence of a regional credit channel
This paper examines the relationship between bank performance and economic growth at the state level. We develop a regional credit view to explain how, due to information costs, regional banking conditions can influence local economic activity by affecting a region's ability to fund local investments. The model suggests that local banking-sector problems may constrain economic activity in financially distressed regions, whereas no such link need be evident in financially sound regions. We test the empirical relevance of this credit view for the 1983-1990 period using state-level data and find ...